Roland Garros 2013 - Day 2, Three Thoughts

Gael Force - The consensus "best match on paper" of the first round, turned out to be the barnburner we all hoped for; 5th seeded Tomas Berdych vs. the wild card (in more ways than one) 81st ranked Gael Monfils, the former top 10 Frenchman on the comeback trail from injury.  On Court Phillipe Chatrier, Monfils known as Sliderman had the big stage he relishes, the big opponent he loves to face and seemingly for the first time in too long, the health to play at the highest level of the sport.

Down On Your Knees? - The Rafa Fan's US Open Backup Plan

With tennis fans processing the disappointing, if not shocking, news that Rafael Nadal's grand slam season is over, there are a number of questions.  The knee injury keeping the Spaniard out of the US Open, is surely disappointing to him, but just as much, if not more, to the legions of Rafael-ites.  We can't do much for Rafa's knees, but we can hopefully help some of the fans out.  We know fans love Rafa for any number of reasons and some might even have a little trouble getting fired up about the Open in the absence of their usual cheering interest.  Well, as always we're here to help.  Here's the Blacklabel Tennis guide on who to watch if you're missing Nadal at the 2012 US Open.

Madrid Masters (5/8): Three Thoughts

School is Out: Milos Raonic is a young gun we've been hearing about for a long time, we'll hear even more in the next 24 hours as tomorrow he's scheduled to be Roger Federer's second round opponent.  For the second year in a row Raonic had a strong run on the hardcourts in the first quarter, claiming his second and third ATP titles in Chennai and San Jose respectively.

Of course, as you recall, Raonic's breakout 2011 season was hampered by an injury at Wimbledon that left him off the tour for a good chunk of the year.  Prior to that however, Raonic's momentum slowed during the European red clay court season.  The Canadian who grew up playing on green clay "quite a bit," opened up about his outlook for the remainder of the clay court campaign and 2012.

2011 Predictions & Reality

Until this morning when they posted the winner, I'd completely forgotten that last year I participated in Tennis-X's 2011 Year End Top 10 poll.  Looking back at my picks (posted as VE), they all seemed so well thought out then.  I even went as far as explaining the logic.  I'm sure at the time, I thought I was dead on about my picks.  But hell, that's why the play the matches, isn't it?


I wound up being right about six of the players who finished in the top ten, but for every big hit; there was a big miss as well.  So, as we begin to look ahead to 2012, I thought it would be fun to share with you what I said then, how I was right an how I was wrong...oh, so wrong.